Blood Ties Calm Before The Storm
by xxthechosenonexx
Summary: Vicki starts her life over, but can she handle what's coming next without Henry or Mike?
1. Chapter 1

Blood Ties –

Calm before the Storm

-JLC

Disclaimer: I do not claim to own the rights to any of the characters or ideas of _Blood Ties_.

People are mysteriously dropping dead, and this time Vicki Nelson is solving the cases on her own. Is she ready for what she will have to face?

_Takes place after "Deep Dark"._

Chapter One:

After a few hours of silence, Vicki finally left Henry's loft and headed back to her office. She was not surprised to find the place trashed and a note written on the walls in blood warning her that "HE" was waiting for her. Coreen stepped in.

"Wow." She said. She looked up at Vicki.

"Coreen. I really don't have time right now."

Coreen shook her head.

"I know, I understand. But I thought you would want to know. I was just at Underground, and I heard that Astaroth is raising an army." Coreen said.

"Coreen, I can't fight an army!"

"I know." Coreen said. She sighed. "But maybe this time we should call them."

Vicki looked up at her.

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about the actual army, you know, guys with big guns?" She smiled.

Vicki shook her head.

"There's nothing that the army can do."

"You don't know for sure. I mean, they probably have special task force just for this stuff."

"Now you're talking non sense again."

Vicki shook her head. An older looking woman with a worried expression stepped into her office. Vicki watched the woman as she looked over the office and then turned to her.

"I'm sorry." She said in a shaky voice. "Are you Vicki Nelson?" She asked.

"I am." Vicki looked around her office, sighed and then turned back to the woman. She smiled. "How can I help you?"

"It's my son." The woman reached over her shoulder and into her deep bag and pulled out a large photo and handed it to Vicki. "Christopher."

Vicki nervously took the photo and then looked up at the woman.

"What's wrong with him?"

The woman shook her head.

"It's rather difficult to explain." She said.

"Let me see if I can get you a cup of tea." Coreen said. "Please take a seat." She motioned for the chair and dug it out from the pile of rubble before the woman sat down. The woman closed her eyes and sighed.

"I last heard from him a couple of days ago." She shook her head. Tears were swelling in her eyes. "It sounded like he was fine. He was working his way up in the company he was at, and he had just landed an impossible deal."

Vicki raised a brow. She knew that there was probably something in that 'Impossible deal', but let the woman continue.

"He was just fine, and then…I don't know. He dropped dead, right after landing the big the deal." She looked up at Vicki. "I would like it if you could look into his death, I might sleep better if I knew exactly what happened."

"Did your son have any health problems?" Vicki asked. She handed the photograph back to the woman. The woman shook her head and put the photo back in her bag.

"No. He was perfectly healthy." She said. She looked off with somberness.

"I will try to do what I can. My fee is five hundred a day plus expenses."

The woman nodded. She reached into her bag and pulled out her check book.

"I can write you a check for half right now."

Vicki nodded.

"That will be fine, Mrs.?"

"Townsend." The woman said with a smile.

Vick smiled.

"Mrs. Townsend."

Mrs. Townsend left and Vicki had Coreen run the check to the bank and place it in the company account. Vicki spent several hours trying to clean up the office, and place the files back in their right places. Coreen came back with a bag of food. She sat it on Vicki's desk.

"I've been thinking about Mrs. Townsend's son." She said. She sat down and didn't bother to look up to see if Vicki was actually listening to her or not. "What if he made some kind of Faustian deal?"

"Faustian deal?" Vicki gave her an 'are you serious' kind of look and then frowned.

Coreen sighed.

"Did you call Mike?"

Vicki looked off.

"He won't answer his phone, and I don't think it's a good time to just run into the station."

Coreen frowned.

"You should have gone with Henry."

"Coreen," Vicki said with a cold glare.

"Well, you should have. Even if it was just for a while, you know."

"Running wouldn't be good for anyone."

"Right…"

Vicki pulled up her e-mail on the computer and sunk when she saw that it was empty. She wanted badly to hear something from Henry or Mike, but neither of them wanted to talk to her. She logged off the e-mail and turned back to Coreen.

"The first place we're going to have to check out his work, we can interview his co-workers and maybe try to figure what happened to him."

"So we're just on our own with this?" Coreen asked.

Vicki was silent for a moment and then let out a sigh.

"It looks that way. Let's get to work."

She shut the screen to the laptop and moved out from behind her desk. Vicki was ready for anything, eve if she had to do it alone.


	2. Chapter 2

Blood Ties

Calm before the Storm

Chapter Two

On her way to Christopher Townsend's work place, Vicki couldn't help but stop and looked in the comic book shop. She flipped through Henry's latest issue. She frowned. The store clerk looked up at her smiled.

"It's a little lacking isn't it?" He asked.

Vicki raised a brow.

"What?"

"His new issue." He said nodded at the comic she had in her hands.

"Oh." She exclaimed.

"The last few ones have been filled with action and adventure and a really great heroine, and now…they're just kind of plane." He said. He shook his head. "It's sad really. This new one just isn't selling like the old ones."

Vicki flipped to the back cover. She glanced at the address. It gave a Montréal address. She frowned. She headed up the front counter and gave the clerk her money.

Mike approached Kate as he entered the apartment. She turned to him and shook her head. She nodded at the body of a young girl.

"There's no forced entry that we can find, no marks, or bruises on the girls body, no bleeding, nothing to indicate that she was a victim of a crime."

Mike looked over the girl. She was still wearing her night gown and her bathrobe. The night gown was a pretty red silk gown, and the bathrobe was thin white fleece, the white made her pale skin look even paler. Even dead, the girl was still a striking beauty. Mike turned his attention from the girl and looked back up at Kate.

"Isn't this what's her name? You know…that actress who just got her billion dollar inheritance or something?"

Kate gave a nod.

"Yeah. It gets better. There were two other reports like this, like people just dropping dead." Kate shook her head. "We shouldn't even be here. This is a waste of our time."

"Then why are we on it?"

Kate shrugged.

"A cop died like this too." She said.

Mike glanced at her.

"Who?"

"Crawford." She looked away.

Mike frowned.

"Crawford? No way? Crawford was the best of the best."

She shrugged. She glanced at the actress and gave her a nod.

"Yeah well, you know, she got all the best roles." She sighed."I don't know. Maybe you should pass it on to your friend." She sneered.

"I'm done with Vicki, Kate." Mike said. He shook his head. "We can handle this case on our own."

Kate smiled. She put a hand on his shoulder.

"Good to hear." She said.

Vicki had been listening to Robert Stevens, the CEO of the company Christopher Townsend had worked for.

"Townsend was an excellent employee." He said. "The kid was always on time, his reports were always perfect. He was top notch."

He had a scruffy voice, but he was a very well dressed man, and he held his head high. He looked like he wasn't much older than her.

"Did he have any close friends here?"

The man shook his head.

"Not that I can think of actually." He said. "He never went to any of the office social events, never went with the groups after work for drinks or dinner. He was reserved."

"I see." Vicki said.

The phone rang. Stevens hit the speaker button.

"Sir, the police are here, they want to ask you some questions. Should I send them in?" The secretary asked.

"Sure. Let –em Sara." He turned to Vicki. "I'm sorry Miss Nelson."

Vicki gave a nod.

"I understand. If I can think of anything else I'll be in touch." She waved and turned out the door. On the way out she bumped smack into Mike. She backed up. He smiled nervously at her. She sucked in a breath and looked away. She headed out of the office. Mike frowned. He felt horrible and wanted to run after her. Kate nudged him. He turned to her and they continued into the office.


	3. Chapter 3

Blood Ties:

Calm before the Storm

Chapter 3

Vicki headed straight from Townsend's work to the morgue. The doctor had two other bodies in addition to Townsend's to show Vicki.

"I thought you would be interested in these." She said. "These three bodies are all in perfect condition, no abnormalities, no illnesses, and yet they're all here."

Vicki looked over each body carefully. She recognized the actress, and then Townsend, and then turned to the other guy. He was an older looking man, with a broad chest, and shoulders. She frowned. She took a few steps back from the body.

"So this is why the cops are asking questions about these people's deaths." She said.

"Yes. I take it you knew Mr. Crawford?" The cornier asked.

"Yeah. I knew who he was. He had a reputation for always solving his cases."

Vicki paused. She felt a cool gust of wind blow against her skin, she turned and found Henry standing over the body of the actress. He sighed and shook his head.

"She was a friend." He said.

He looked at Vicki. Vicki rolled her eyes.

"Of course she was." She mumbled. "So what do you think killed her?" She asked. She folded her arms over her chest.

Henry shrugged.

"Who knows? Deaths like this happen all the time in Hollywood."

"But she didn't have any enemies, at least not according to the tabloids." Vicki stated.

"Don't believe you read." Henry said with a grin. "Sometimes these things go deeper than what gets reported."

Vicki frowned.

"What do you know about Faustian deals?" She asked.

Henry sighed.

"Vicki I really don't have time for this."

Vicki glanced at him. She felt stung. She tried not to let her anger show.

"In a big hurry to get back to Montreal are you?" She sneered.

Henry frowned.

"Maybe I am." He growled.

"Oh for goodness sakes." The cornier mumbled. "If you are two are done, I have work to do." She glared at both of them. They both glanced at her and then back at each other.

"Can I see you outside for a second?" Vicki asked.

Henry paused for a moment and then gave a nod. He followed Vicki out.

"What?" He asked.

"You show up randomly like this, claiming to have known one of these victims whose death is related to my own investigation and you're not going to help me solve it?"

"How's Mike?" Henry sneered with a grin.

Vicki frowned.

"I haven't spoken to Mike in a few days. He's not answering my phone calls and he's not returning my messages. Are you happy now?" She felt the urge to stomp on his foot but refrained.

Henry grinned.

"But you've seen him recently."

Vicki rolled her eyes.

"He was at the site of my client's son's work place. I only saw him for a few seconds and he just ignored me. Ok?" She glared at him.

"Ok." He said. He leaned forward and pulled her close. He pulled her face toward his and kissed her. She took a step back and looked at him. He smiled. "I might stick around for a bit to help you on this case, but I can't stay here long term now."

Vicki looked at him.

"Why?"

"Because there's already a new vampire on the rise, and I can't avoid that for long."

Vicki gave him a nod even though she didn't really understand the whole vampire hunting ground thing. She leaned forward and kissed Henry. She couldn't avoid what she had been feeling for Henry. Now that he was back, she wanted to make sure that he stayed.


End file.
